When Tesco Grangemouth announced the store closure in 2014 the WEA offered to support staff with employability skills. After discussion with Tesco employees and conducting a Learning Needs Analysis it was clear that most of the staff were concerned about lacking ICT and literacy skills relating to job applications and CVs. Additionally, literacy capabilities and computer skills are essential for learners when liaising with the Job Centre Plus.
15 staff attended a series of courses that built their ICT skills and developed their literacy to enable them to produce a CV and covering letter, and for some, the opportunity to practise interview skills.
WEA provided flexible workplace delivery at times that accommodated shifts and childcare responsibilities which in turn reduced barriers to learning and increased learner participation. A number of learners said that as a result they now had confidence to progress on to other learning opportunities.
At the end of the WEA workplace provision, learners were signposted to a range of provision offered by partners such as – CLD literacy programmes, local job clubs and library facilities, where further support could be accessed.
Some quotes from learners:
“I feel a lot more confident and the skills I have learned will hopefully help me get a job.”
“I never knew that job applications were all done on a computer nowadays. This was a wakeup call. Should have done this years ago.”
“The course being at work made it much easier.”